Fig. 1

Association of IL-1RA expression with OSCC progression and patient outcomes. A Protein expression of IL-1RA in oral tumor tissues from OSCC patients (OSCC) and normal oral tissues from normal epithelial regions of fibroma patients (Normal) was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The negative control for IL-1RA staining was performed in parallel with omission of primary antibodies. B–C Protein expression of IL-1RA in OSCC tumor tissues was analyzed by IHC for the comparison of primary tumor size (T1 versus T2-T4) in (B), and cancer stage (Stage I versus Stage II-IV) in (C). The scoring of IHC was described in the Methods section. Data were presented as mean ± SD with the indicated sample size in parentheses. *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01. D Overall survival probability was analyzed by Kaplan–Meier survival curves for patients with adjuvant radiotherapy ( +) and patients without adjuvant radiotherapy (−) according to the expression level of IL-1RA in OSCC tumor tissues (low versus high) as described in the Methods section. The sample size in each group was indicated in parentheses